Where is it mentioned that Agassi benches 300lbs? Thats practically doing 6 45 lbs plates. The most I ever benched was 295 lbs, my one rep max, back when I played football. That is 4x45 lbs plates and 2x35 lbs plates.

In football, we trained like power lifters, and did lots of squats, and clean and press type exercises with high explosion movements.

If Andre does bench that much then he is training to be bulk up as what vin mentioned.

Its really impressive Andre can bench that much considering his upper body does not have the mass that most people have that can bench about 300 lbs.

The www.crossfit.com site mentioned above is a great resource for overall conditioning, GPP style. It's probably the most thought out GPP (General Physical Preparedness) program out there. But the best thing on the site IMHO is the message board, which is full of very very knowledgeable people on all sorts of stuff: powerlifting, gymnastics, martial arts, HIIT, etc. They do frown on bodybuilding though.

Have not followed the myriad of links here yet. But I would like to add that core stability is one of the most important things, often overlooked in tennis, running and in general. Your core stability will affect the way (efficiency) you use your legs, your arms, everything.

Someone once provided a very illustrative image to me: "you cannot shoot a cannon from a canoe". That really drives home the importance of a stable core/rump for me.

I used to bench press 250 (I'm 5'8"), and being that bulky definitely affected by game, especially my serve, though I've later decided that had I stretched every day for 10-15 minutes, it may have changed everything. My swim coach also used to complain about my lack of flexibility.

Marius,
Great sites, I appreciate it, they have come in handy.
You might want to add these sites in your sig under jump rope.
buddyleejumprope.com
jumpropeinstitute.com

The first one has a great book and DVD. Best ropes in the business. IMO
The second site gives many different types of basic jumps, this will keep it interesting for a 20 minute workout. Just don't start at 20 minutes though. (from experience )

For the non-heavyweights (those that need to be in some sort of weight class and are thus, constrained to a weight), powerlifters are some of the most explosive, quickest athletes around. If you are squatting and deadlifting 3x bodyweight, and benching 2x bodyweight. It doesn't matter how 'thick' you are. You will be quite explosive and quick.

And that is what powerlifting and strength training are about: performance. Not bulking up. The goal is to lift as much as you can, and weigh as little as possible.

There are 2 basic ways to increase strength without bulking up:

- very heavy weights at lower reps ( <6, which can be tough on the joints)
- lighter weight, higher reps, but here's the key... done with speed

The 8-12 rep range with moderate pace is where most people seem to spend their time. And this is a means to add both strength and bulk. Good in most cases, but not the highest-performance means of training.

Just some info...

Here are a few more intriguing facts and notes:

- given Andre's body size and weight (170lbs or so), I find it difficult to believe he can bench 315#. That's quite a good ratio for an ameature powerlifter who doesn't run around as much playing tennis. But it is possible!
- At Andre's body weight (take him down to the 165# class), the current (non-drug-free) best bench press is 485#.
- At 181# class, it is 540#

There are 4 important features of a good bench presser, and it isn't about short arms and big chests.

3 - technqiue: If you want to leverage your joints (read, injure yourself in the spirit of winning, not health), you can abandon the 90-degree angle rule and let your arms go straight back, leveraging your triceps against your lats.

4 - finding your optimimum grip - which is usually more narrow than you'd expect. Out of all the skeletal muscles in the body, the triceps has the highest ratio of white-to-red cell fibres, which should read, "most powerful for their size" - and when training to be light-weight, can be more advantageous than the chest in high-performance bench pressing

It is amazing the people that still dont understand weight training in 2006.It is one of the best things you can do for your body+tennis game period! If you play tennis regularly+ do any aerobic excersize,the chances of bulking up with some weight training are slim to none.

I stuck this thread because I thought it was a good resource, especially for the Health & Fitness section in general. If you'd like to have a more updated sticky, just ask Marius or something... If anyone wants to compile a "FAQ," just send me an e-mail with your proposed FAQ thread, and if it's good to go I'll stick it.

"powerlifters are some of the most explosive, quickest athletes around. If you are squatting and deadlifting 3x bodyweight, and benching 2x bodyweight. It doesn't matter how 'thick' you are. You will be quite explosive and quick."

Its true, i read that a study shows that Olympic Lifters have the highest average for Vertical Jumps--- Yes, even higher than NBA players

Being thick isn't always good though. The thicker you are the more you generally weigh, therefor the more you have to carry for long matches and can hurt you in the long run. Endurance would be better than pure explosive power in my opinion.